Xt1200z suspension settings

fac191

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I’ve now wound up the preload to half way and softened rebound by 2 clicks from standard and then 2 clicks softer on both rebound and comp in the front. High command says it’s better but is still not impressed.

I’m convinced the S10 should be more comfortable for her than the Zx14r so I’m going to persevere and probably end up giving it to MCT to sort out.


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Darren at MCT is top drawer did my Tiger800.
 

Longdog Cymru

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so without totally replacing the stock rear shock , does anyone know the best replacement spring to replace the crap stock one ?
Just a suggestion, but have you thought about a HyperPro spring? They are progressively wound so it may just be the answer to your prayers. https://hyperpro.com/springs/

There are lots of people with lots of views about progressively wound as opposed to linear springs, but this isn’t one size fits all, so a progressive spring may be just what you want.
 

bimota

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Dec 10, 2017
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bridgend, Wales, UK
i asked them as they had one on ebay for tenere last yr before i bought the ohlins,

when i gave them my needs and weights of me and wife and luggage, they said there spring was no good for what i needed

but worth a try

rob
 

Xclimation

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Aug 17, 2016
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Ft. Worth, Texas
This is my first bike with all these suspension adjustments. I have the non es. It seems if I'm reading the manual and this thread correctly; the non es more more adjustments and more finer tuning adjustments? I just serviced my front forks and swingarm and inspected neck bearings.....So I decided to finally (after over 4 years of have a Super Tenere) learn the suspension adjustments. After all the maintenance I just did, I set EVERYTHING to the softest setting from the standard settings. I weigh approx. 170 lbs. have crash bars/skid plate (Rumbux which weigh a little more) Panniers that weigh 8lbs. each. I ride in full gear. The standard setting were fine for me. I've always been one to adjust to the bike I'm riding instead of the other way around. Right now at the softest settings, I notice a little difference. not much. Does roll smoother down the road it seems. I purposely have gone over some bumps at slower speeds. Seems a little softer. Now where there was a difference....on a freeway ramp that is high above the ground that merges on to an Interstate highway...during the merge, It goes downhill a quite a steep angle and is somewhat of a corkscrew type tight turn....I was going about 65 mph and somewhat sideways...I hit a small depression in the road. It felt to me like the rear tire was for a split second not in contact with the road. It was just the rear tire and somewhat of an attention getter! As a result....I tightened by 3 clicks the preload on the rear shock and the rebound damping on the rear shock by 3 clicks. Then I tightened the preload on the front forks by 1 line from all the way out.....I'll see in the morning when riding to work if I notice any difference.
I will say that learning the suspension settings is more complex than I thought and there is soooo many differing opinions and personal preferences....laced with a tad of contradictory info.
but it is definitely a trial and error process....
 

Sierra1

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Joshua TX
...I hit a small depression in the road. It felt to me like the rear tire was for a split second not in contact with the road. It was just the rear tire and somewhat of an attention getter! . . . .
You know those dips on Altamesa Blvd, in the S Hulen St. area? I hit those two-up with it set on the soft side. Felt like there was a hinge in the middle of the bike. Changed it to hard/+3, before I hit the next one. Barely felt it. I'm currently riding on crappy roads. Using hard/0, and the ride's stiff, but handles the bumps great. I don't know if the manual has a cross reference with ES/non.

But, yeah, it takes some experimentation to get it right. It seems counterintuitive some times.
 

Longdog Cymru

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I believe most advice for setting your suspension lies around getting your static sag correct. IIRC if your suspension travel is 150mm, then when you sit on the bike with all of your riding gear on, your bike should use about 1/3 of the total travel, so in this case about 50mm. You set this by changing the pre-load on your forks and rear suspension unit. Once you have that correct, then you can alter your damping to suit.
 

jkl935

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Jun 7, 2019
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Punta Gorda, FL
Stock shock springs on all teneres (both es and non es) are far too soft for even the lightest solo riders.
With you preload on the lowest preload setting you are sitting very low in the rear. More preload does not make the spring stiffer. It only increase the ride height and lets you have more travel available.
Crank the rear preload to the max setting. It will not make the ride more harsh.
Max preload will give proper 30% sag to a rider who is approx. 175-180 lbs. Adding a passenger only makes the situation worse.
If you are over 180lbs preload on max all the time. Rebound 10-12 clicks out from fully clockwise

Solo riding -- Forks add 7 turns of preload from fully out. Go counter clockwise until the adjuster stops and them turn 7 turns clockwise.
Forks turn compression fully clockwise until it stops and then go 12 clicks out. (bottom of fork)
Rebound 10 clicks out from fully clockwise.

2 up -- more weight on the rear with a soft rear spring means the bike starts to sit like a chopper. In fact your front sag will be less with a passenger because you can't add any more rear preload to pick it back up. The front will in fact sit higher with a passenger or luggage if you can't increase rear preload to correct this. Remove 3-4 turns of preload from the forks to help transfer some weight back to the front and prevent the rear from sitting soo low.

Get a tape measure and measure and set your sag. 57mm rider sag is 30%. This is a good setting to aim for front and back.
Best advice is to get a tape measure and spend 30 minutes getting it set up. You will quickly see the rear spring needs work. There are stiffer springs out there to help fix your issue.
And don't believe all the ES fixes everything BS. ES version is exactly the same and harder to fix.
Was searching, because I thought maybe I was missing something, but based on what you logged here, maybe I'm not. I haven't done track days since 2014, but my routine was....second weekend of year, after convincing myself the setup was crap, I'd pay the suspension guru to get me straight. Then, I'd tweak throughout the season and then the next season, blame something other than my miserable tuning, and pay suspension dude again. Fast forward to the Tenere. I have a 2018 non-ES and just spent a bunch of time trying to start the process of dialing in the suspension, as I feel like my traction on the gravel roads/jeep trails kind of sucks. My numbers are, I think, in line with what you have here, but hopefully, you'll see this and maybe tell me I'm missing something.

(Inches/mm). 7.5/191 of available travel in the rear shock. Target then is, as you mentioned, 2.25/57.3. I put it on the center stand, took panniers off (cheap aluminum Moose), left racks on (rear seat is already off) and measure bottom of axle to spot near pax grab rail at 24.4/620. Off center stand and in chock, with lovely assistant (wife who doesn't want to do this sh**) and just kept cranking and measuring and I get to 2.56/65 at max preload, which is materially off the target of 2.25 or 57.3.

Anyway, I was expecting to be able to at least get to target and then adjust, but was a little surprised (I guess, but this is the first of these types of bikes I've had since a 1989 Transalp, which was very soft) that I wouldn't be able to hit the 30% target. I'm 165 pounds and add helmet, boots, aerostitch, that I donned for the exercise. If I'm not missing anything, I'm just going to go with what you posted.
 

Sierra1

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So, why does my bike work, and work well, with my fat ass on it? Not to mention with both my wife, and I on it. Just ride it, and make large initial adjustments. Learn how the bike is going to react to what you've done. . . . adjust if/as necessary. It's not rocket science. "Ride more, worry less" :)
 

jkl935

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Jun 7, 2019
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Punta Gorda, FL
So, why does my bike work, and work well, with my fat ass on it? Not to mention with both my wife, and I on it. Just ride it, and make large initial adjustments. Learn how the bike is going to react to what you've done. . . . adjust if/as necessary. It's not rocket science. "Ride more, worry less" :)
Generally, I'm with ya. I've never ridden a bike, any bike, that I didn't like better than driving any car. With that said, "well" is both relative and subjective and I'm playing around with it to have it ride better. Not sweating it that much, but I try to take this thing off pavement as much as possible (have an Indian Barcalounger for touring) and this post trail appears to tell me that tweaking the settings begins at a sub-optimal point. And even that is relative. Sub-optimal, until I compare it to spending coin on new suspension parts, which isn't in the cards. I bought the ST for the value it represents v. the competition. I'm going to apply the aforementioned settings and go from there.
 

jrusell

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Aug 23, 2017
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460
Location
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
Was searching, because I thought maybe I was missing something, but based on what you logged here, maybe I'm not. I haven't done track days since 2014, but my routine was....second weekend of year, after convincing myself the setup was crap, I'd pay the suspension guru to get me straight. Then, I'd tweak throughout the season and then the next season, blame something other than my miserable tuning, and pay suspension dude again. Fast forward to the Tenere. I have a 2018 non-ES and just spent a bunch of time trying to start the process of dialing in the suspension, as I feel like my traction on the gravel roads/jeep trails kind of sucks. My numbers are, I think, in line with what you have here, but hopefully, you'll see this and maybe tell me I'm missing something.

(Inches/mm). 7.5/191 of available travel in the rear shock. Target then is, as you mentioned, 2.25/57.3. I put it on the center stand, took panniers off (cheap aluminum Moose), left racks on (rear seat is already off) and measure bottom of axle to spot near pax grab rail at 24.4/620. Off center stand and in chock, with lovely assistant (wife who doesn't want to do this sh**) and just kept cranking and measuring and I get to 2.56/65 at max preload, which is materially off the target of 2.25 or 57.3.

Anyway, I was expecting to be able to at least get to target and then adjust, but was a little surprised (I guess, but this is the first of these types of bikes I've had since a 1989 Transalp, which was very soft) that I wouldn't be able to hit the 30% target. I'm 165 pounds and add helmet, boots, aerostitch, that I donned for the exercise. If I'm not missing anything, I'm just going to go with what you posted.
You are not missing anything.
I am constantly amazed how many are not willing to take 10 minutes like you did, and actually measure their bike setup.
Both ES and non Es bikes are way undersprung. Wayyyyy under sprung.

Now you are on the lighter side of things and you might actually be able to get decent numbers by adding more preload to the stock spring.
One of the issues is the stock spring has a free length of 215mm and when installed at the minimum preload setting the spring is only compressed to 210mm.
5mm of installed preload is far too low. If you can increase the installed preload by 10 mm -12mm you will probably be able to get proper sag numbers for solo riding and maybe even carrying luggage. With a passenger you still will not be able to get it back in range, but it might be acceptable and most certainly far better than what you have now.

Easy solution is to make up a spacer 10mm thick that sits above the top of the spring between the spring and the black plastic spring seat. Remove the stock spring, install spacer and then reinstall the stock spring.
It is a cheap solution if you are handy and have some 10-12mm thick aluminum plate around. Make the ID so it will fit snug over the black plastic seat and OD just slightly larger than the spring OD.

There are heavier springs out there, but the spring length is just as important as the rate. You want to be starting with a longer spring than the stock one to get proper installed preload of at least 15mm. Total preload to get good sag numbers will be 18-20mm depending on what spring rate is chosen.
I picked up a stiffer 220mm long spring when I was searching for a solution a few years ago. It would have given me 15mm of installed preload to start with.

Here is a pic of what you would be making. Simple and effective for someone much lighter than me. For someone over 200 lbs it would help, but properly chosen spring would be a better solution.
Make the spacer so it goes between the black spring seat and the spring as seen in the second pic.

I club raced for 15 years and loved tuning the suspension to get things correct. Had to stop in 2016, but the tuning continues with the S10. No way I can ride a bike as far off as the S10 was stock. Mine is pretty good right now, but always twiddling the knobs.
 

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jkl935

New Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2019
Messages
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Location
Punta Gorda, FL
You are not missing anything.
I am constantly amazed how many are not willing to take 10 minutes like you did, and actually measure their bike setup.
Both ES and non Es bikes are way undersprung. Wayyyyy under sprung.

Now you are on the lighter side of things and you might actually be able to get decent numbers by adding more preload to the stock spring.
One of the issues is the stock spring has a free length of 215mm and when installed at the minimum preload setting the spring is only compressed to 210mm.
5mm of installed preload is far too low. If you can increase the installed preload by 10 mm -12mm you will probably be able to get proper sag numbers for solo riding and maybe even carrying luggage. With a passenger you still will not be able to get it back in range, but it might be acceptable and most certainly far better than what you have now.

Easy solution is to make up a spacer 10mm thick that sits above the top of the spring between the spring and the black plastic spring seat. Remove the stock spring, install spacer and then reinstall the stock spring.
It is a cheap solution if you are handy and have some 10-12mm thick aluminum plate around. Make the ID so it will fit snug over the black plastic seat and OD just slightly larger than the spring OD.

There are heavier springs out there, but the spring length is just as important as the rate. You want to be starting with a longer spring than the stock one to get proper installed preload of at least 15mm. Total preload to get good sag numbers will be 18-20mm depending on what spring rate is chosen.
I picked up a stiffer 220mm long spring when I was searching for a solution a few years ago. It would have given me 15mm of installed preload to start with.

Here is a pic of what you would be making. Simple and effective for someone much lighter than me. For someone over 200 lbs it would help, but properly chosen spring would be a better solution.
Make the spacer so it goes between the black spring seat and the spring as seen in the second pic.

I club raced for 15 years and loved tuning the suspension to get things correct. Had to stop in 2016, but the tuning continues with the S10. No way I can ride a bike as far off as the S10 was stock. Mine is pretty good right now, but always twiddling the knobs.
Wow. Way above and beyond. I appreciate that. If I knock it out in October, I'll let you know how it goes. Next slot would be Feb/Mar when I'm back, but the pics help a lot and I know a guy who can cut some metal.
 
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